Tag Archives: EPCIS

At a recent GS1 discussion group meeting one of the
moderators acknowledged that they need to create a clear explanation for
exactly what EPCIS is. I’ve never been
very impressed with GS1’s ability to explain their own standards at a high-level
for non-technical readers. They do a
great job of explaining them at the minutia-level, but that’s the problem. Non-technical people who must make decisions
about GS1 standards probably get bogged down in that minutia and end up not
really understanding what it is, why it is significant, and why they should use
it. Too much technical documentation
exists on how to apply EPCIS, and not
enough documentation on the why.

There are a lot of discussions going on in the industry right now, over which approach and which technologies the US pharma supply chain should select to meet the 2023 requirements of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). People are understandably confused over these discussions. Why should we guess what the FDA will accept in 2023? Blockchain? EPCIS? Aren’t these debates and discussions just a waste of our time? Why doesn’t the FDA just tell us which technology they will accept for the DSCSA in 2023? In fact, these questions have become so common lately that I think it is time to examine what is going on. There are definitive answers to these questions, and they are contained within the DSCSA itself. Continue reading DSCSA: Why FDA Will Not Mandate Blockchain, EPCIS Or Any Other Specific Technology→

In fact, the thing to test is whether or not it can be used to facilitate gathering the TIs for a given Standardized Numerical Identifier (SNI) going back to the original manufacturer, as needed after November 27, 2023 during a suspect product investigation or recall. Those are rare events compared with the number of drug sales and shipments where the TI and TS will need to be exchanged.

The Enhanced Drug Distribution Security (EDDS) phase of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) is due to begin on November 27, 2023. That’s the first day that the US pharma supply chain is supposed to fully operate with serial numbers. Yes, serial numbers in human readable and encoded into 2D barcodes will be on every drug packaged after November of this year, but there is only limited use of those serial numbers in the supply chain until 2023. But when the EDDS starts, everything changes. From that point on, every Transaction Information (TI) document must include the full DSCSA Unique Identifiers—including the serial numbers for the first time—that are physically included in the shipment, the Transaction History (TH) no longer needs to be exchanged, and the data exchange requirements change. Let’s focus in on those data exchange changes. Continue reading EDDS: The New Data Exchange Requirements→

Last week the FDA announced it will coordinate one or more pilot(s) to assist in the development of the electronic, interoperable system that will identify and trace drugs in the U.S. under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) in its Enhanced Drug Distribution Security (EDDS) phase starting in 2023. Once they start work on pilot planning, they will call for proposals from stakeholders and others. But they can’t start until they get permission from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and they won’t even ask OMB for permission until they collect comments on the proposed collection of information associated with establishing the pilot program. Believe it or not, that was the Continue reading What Should FDA Pilot?→

Maybe I’m just hyper sensitive to all things blockchain right now, but it sure seemed like the topic of blockchain permeated the sessions and the halls at last week’s GS1 Connect conference, GS1 US’s annual membership event. Oddly, all of the official blockchain content was outside the Healthcare track. The technology is certainly applicable in all industries and apparently there is interest in it outside of the healthcare vertical within GS1 US. But what I observed there leads me to think we are very close to an important tipping point. Continue reading Blockchain Reigns At GS1 Connect 2017→

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